Using Two TVs For PS3 For Multiplayer

[DrRipley]

Using Two TVs For PS3 Multiplayer

I absolutely hate playing games in split screen mode. In fact, it's probably why I love sidescrollers so much, because in this type of game both players get to see a whole picture. That said, I've looked into hooking up two TV sets to one PS3, and while I have seen some videos online showing that it is indeed executable, I wonder if it's just used as mirrors and not really for separate gaming. I doubt that it allows 2 players to play on separate screens because I haven't really seen any videos online showing it being used to play multiplayer. Is what I am trying to achieve possible? If not, shouldn't it be? I want to do this most for Army of two and racing games.

Here is one of the videos I came across while doing research. It's not what I'm trying to achieve but it does look pretty neat. Enjoy:

 

[ozadin]

That's actually very clever - to use two screens when playing multiplayer. I have never seen anyone use it before, but I believe your TV has to be the exact size as the split screen which is unfortunate. I have never seen an option to calibrate split screens for two screens, but that would be amazing if Sony did add that.

 

[Haze]

I tried looking for something like this a few years back with no success. I love playing co-op with my girlfriend, but I'm not a fan of split screen. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way, maybe one day!

 

[DrRipley]

That's actually very clever - to use two screens when playing multiplayer. I have never seen anyone use it before, but I believe your TV has to be the exact size as the split screen which is unfortunate. I have never seen an option to calibrate split screens for two screens, but that would be amazing if Sony did add that.

I tried looking for something like this a few years back with no success. I love playing co-op with my girlfriend, but I'm not a fan of split screen. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way, maybe one day!

I was hoping it was possible. They should have just focused on that as a basic feature for the PS4 instead of all the extra features they ended up making, in my opinion. TV's are a lot cheaper now and I suspect they will only get cheaper as the PS4 popularizes. Hopefully they can still work it into future updates if it's just a software issue.

 

[Torisaur]

The best way to get around this could possibly to play two separate games, perhaps? If you can get your hands on a second system and a second copy of the game, you both could do your racing games whilst starting at the same time. Otherwise, you can just use your times to try and emulate a racing scene the best way you can. That would be cool to have doubke-screened split screen, though.

 

[DrRipley]

The best way to get around this could possibly to play two separate games, perhaps? If you can get your hands on a second system and a second copy of the game, you both could do your racing games whilst starting at the same time. Otherwise, you can just use your times to try and emulate a racing scene the best way you can. That would be cool to have doubke-screened split screen, though.

Having two consoles on two TV screens sounds like too much of an effort to play a couple of racing games. Not to mention it would be expensive haha. Also, it would never work because I also want to play Army of Two with another player and it just wouldn't be possible to do playing on separate consoles. Thanks for your suggestion, but I will keep looking for a solution and if I find one I'll post it here!

 

[yesovi91]

I tried looking for something like this a few years back with no success. I love playing co-op with my brother, because I'm not a fan of split screen. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way, hopefully soon though.

 

[hotshot]

Is it even possible? To send the ps3 image at two screens at the same time? I don't know, never seen it done but it would be pretty sweet. Never enjoyed split screen, but I rarely play games with split screen, because most of the games I play with multiplayer are fighting and sports, that don't require split screen.

 

[Haze]

I tried looking for something like this a few years back with no success. I love playing co-op with my girlfriend, but I'm not a fan of split screen. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way, maybe one day!

I tried looking for something like this a few years back with no success. I love playing co-op with my brother, because I'm not a fan of split screen. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way, hopefully soon though.

 

[lindbergh]

Well, two TV screens would be fine for multiplayer. But it would of course cost you much more electricity. I'm fine with having to play via split screen on one TV. The trick is just to focus on your side of the screen and not look at the entire TV. If you just focus on one side, it would be as if you're playing on separate TVs. Of course, a large screen would help.

 

[Nymph]

This is part of the reason why I love wide, flatscreen TVs. You can zone out on one side while be completely oblivious of the other, but at the same time you can peek and know exactly where the other person is, something I always hated with shooters when trying to play with a friend. A multi-tv setup should be something for devs to look into. I mean, it's more than possible and has been done for years with computers. I like the idea, but I wouldn't go so far as to run up electricity bills and go into some complicated setup to accomplish it. There's a huge emphasis on online play and that's usually how these matches work now, so I don't see this being easy to do in the future.

 

[DrRipley]

This is part of the reason why I love wide, flatscreen TVs. You can zone out on one side while be completely oblivious of the other, but at the same time you can peek and know exactly where the other person is, something I always hated with shooters when trying to play with a friend. A multi-tv setup should be something for devs to look into. I mean, it's more than possible and has been done for years with computers. I like the idea, but I wouldn't go so far as to run up electricity bills and go into some complicated setup to accomplish it. There's a huge emphasis on online play and that's usually how these matches work now, so I don't see this being easy to do in the future.

Even on a larger screen I'm insurmountably annoyed with split screen gaming, especially when the split is horizontal like in Army of Two. I don't mind too much the part about the ability to peek as much as I hate having to share the screen. I was honestly shocked to see this wasn't possible when I searched it since it seems so obvious and it's probably not too difficult to do, I'm guessing. I agree and I do get that they are pushing online playing a lot more so that's probably why they chose not to waste too much time on local multiplayer. It's such a missed opportunity though.

 

[Pickicool]

I too do not understand what you mean, but I know that to play on two TV requires two consoles.
And I'm talking about the local multiplayer.

If you want to play solo with several screens like on the PC, it is simply impossible because the PS3 can not handle it.

Anyway, I see no interest, because the screens of TVs are very large today. Prices fall over the last time.

 

[Joker99352]

I've used my relatively small HD computer monitor for splitscreen, and it worked really well. Despite the size of the screen being much smaller than my standard-def TV, it's much easier to see what you're doing in HD. I think it's more important that you can make out details than everything being really huge since blurry is blurry in any capacity.

 

[Medza]

An interesting concept but I think it would be difficult to do from a technological standpoint. You would need to optimise your console to output two separate signals which could be tricky. However, what you could do is try something like this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqeebO_-G44 , essentially what is going on here is you have a 3D TV displaying two separate full screens on one TV. But then you wear 3D glasses and you only see your screen , whereas the other person only sees theirs.

 

[Gamer_Fries]

While I've never set up multiple TVs for the purpose of playing multiplayer games with people. Though I do sometimes like to set up two or three monitors for playing on my PC which is kind of fun sometimes though it can be confusing. It works really well with some games but completely messes up other games and ruins it.

 

[mareebaybay]

I hate split screens as well, but ultimately I have to deal with it yanno? I mean you can't play one console on two tv's can you?

 

[SerraGirl]

Call of duty is annoying with split screen. I have used 2 tv's and 2 ps3's to play LAN games and that is very fun. It's like being solo but not!

 

[DreamyGamerGirl]

sadly the days of couch multiplayer are over

 

[raygamer]

sadly the days of couch multiplayer are over

Yeah, there definitely aren't as many games made these days that support couch co-op or splitscreen. I blame HD graphics requiring too many system resources. It's sad too, playing splitscreen on an HDTV is immeasurably better than playing splitscreen on a CRT TV like back in the day. I can't believe my friends and I aren't blind from playing Goldeneye on a CRT lol.

For anyone interested, a great resource for newer games that still offer splitscreen is the site co-optimus. It's a site that only lists multiplayer games and you can filter them by local multiplayer.